The Great African Caravan: A one-of-its-kind art odyssey for a world without borders

Bruised, battered and emotionally drained — Hyderabadi theatre artiste Akram Feroze was in the last leg of his eight-month-long African expedition when the horrific Christchurch massacre took place in New Zealand. For over 200 days, Akram, was leading a motley crew of 12 self anointed goodwill ambassadors who’d embarked on a road trip across Africa to promote the message of world peace. “We had been living in various camps or in strangers’ homes, eating at roadside stalls and roughing it out in harsh weather to promote the idea of a universal brotherhood. The news of shootings in New Zealand really shook us all up. But it also strengthened our resolve to spread the message that it’s time for people to wake up and realise that we’re all citizens of this world. We must all rise above our regional, religious and communal differen-ces to unite as one,” implores Akram spelling out the objective of the unique peace expedition: ‘The Great African Caravan’. As a part of the ‘World without Borders’ initiative, Akram joined hands with 11 likeminded individuals to travel 15,000 kms across Africa, covering 10 countries for this one of its kind peace odyssey. “The idea was to use art to highlight the common struggles we face and connect with the people so that we can all embrace the philosophy of global citizenship. We were a team of filmmakers, photographers, visual artists, singers, musicians — six Indians and others from Germany, Argentina, UK, Kosovo, Uganda and Kenya. Through our artwork, we highlighted issues related to gender, environment and world peace,” explains the native of Jagtial.

‘PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION ABOUT AFRICA IS MISPLACED, IT’S A BEAUTIFUL CONTINENT WITH WONDERFUL PEOPLE’Over the last decade, the 30-year-old has gone on several expeditions to promote the idea of a borderless society. In 2011, he cycled through more than 40 villages in India over a span of three months, in a project titled Cycle Natak. Four years later, he came up with an ambitious project called ‘Theatre at Borders’, an ambitious plan to hitchhike along more than 10,000 km of border regions and sensitise people there about what the frontiers mean. ‘The Great African Caravan’ is his most ambitious project till date. “This time, I tried to reach out to people in different parts of the world. And this is not my project alone as artistes from different parts of the globe have come together to showcase unity and promote global harmony,” he explains, adding, “We want to travel to every continent as part of this initiative. However, we felt it was apt to start with Africa as it is believed to be the cradle of mankind.”

As they travelled from Capetown to Cairo, they discovered an Africa that is very different from the popular perception. “People think of Africa as this scary, dark place full of deprived and unhappy souls, but that’s not true. Yes, there are a lot of problems and there is a lot of imbalance but the people are truly wonderful. And we tried to reach out to them through our art — whether it is theatre, music or paintings,” explains Akram.

‘WE HEARD GUNSHOTS WHILE CROSSING OVER FROM ETHIOPIA TO SUDAN. IT WAS EXTREMELY SCARY’Reaching out to the locals wasn’t easy. “They were suspicious and thought we had an agenda. Luckily, we had two artistes from Africa as well among us. Slowly, they began to trust us and we had some fruitful conversations,” he shares. Fruitful it may have been for the artistes but their journey wasn’t without incident. “Crossing the local borders were always very difficult. There was a lot of paperwork involved and it would take hours. Once when we were crossing over from Ethiopia to Sudan, we heard gunshots. There was some local conflict going on, and soon the military got involved. It was all very scary for us, and thankfully nobody got hurt,” recalls Akram.

‘MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY DRAINED, THERE WAS A TIME WHEN I WANTED TO JUST GIVE UP’With no major sponsors, the artistes had to rely mainly on crowdfunding to cover their costs. “We were moved by the warmth shown by the people and it reaffirmed our belief that we are all one race — with the same problems and goals,” the Hyderabad-based artiste points out. Akram confesses that there was a time when he got so homesick that he wanted to give it all up. “When you stay with the same people for 230 days, you get sick of each other too. So I was mentally and emotionally drained and was asking myself if this was really worth it. And that is when news of the India-Pakistan conflict broke. The way people reacted to it shocked me. How many educated people, including my friends, were advocating for an all-out war between the two countries made me realise that we must keep going to put an end to all the hate,” recalls Akram who is set to return to Hyderabad next week. “I’m a quintessential Hyderabadi, and love the biryani and Irani chai. I’m looking forward to eating home food again and spending time with the family. It’s been a great journey but I can’t wait to get back home,” adds Akram, signing off.